Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion :

Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
With burnt offering and whole burnt offering:

Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

The rock is smitten, and to future years
Flows ever fresh the tide of holy tears,
And holy music, whispering peace,
Till time and sin together cease.

COMMENT.The rock of David's hardened heart had been broken, and thenceforth his lamentation has been the pattern and the voice of all who, like him, would repent. This prayer of his, composed, as the title in the Bible tells us, just after Nathan's rebuke has aided the repentance and guided the sorrows of thousands and millions ever since. His sorrow could find no relief but in this hymn-like prayer; and God the Holy Ghost so guided his words, that what he spake of himself should apply to all who long to own their sin.

Observe, the Psalm is in four divisions, containing—first, his confession; second, his entreaty; third, his vow of gratitude; fourth, his concluding prayer: and in each division the short middle verse marks the point.

And in his confession how remarkable it is that, though the injury to his neighbour had been so great, the thought of it is swallowed up in the sense of what the sin was against the God whose anointed servant he was, and whose perfect justice he owns. Do we always think enough about sinning against God, when, as we say, we do nobody any harm? David owns his entire wickednesshis birth-sin-in words that have gone on as the expression of the corruption under which we all were born.

Then comes the entreaty for restoration, beginning with the heart; and then alluding to the ceremonies of the Law by which a leper was admitted back to God's presence (Lev. xiv. 4), when he was sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice on a bunch of hyssop, and washed again and again in pure water. David knew that his sin was a leprosy that only God could wash away, and thus he prays for the clean heart, and that the Holy Spirit, who had come to him at his anointing, might not be taken from him. How much more should a Christian pray, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me"? Nay, in his depth of grief, he can still pray for the joy of salvation to be

restored, and his free, liberal, open hearted spirit, in bondage to no sin, to return!

So he can hope to go on drawing other sinners back to God; he who dares to pray to be delivered even from the guilt of Uriah's blood, and to have his lips opened once more to that worthy praise which he knows to be more precious than the sacrifices of bullocks and goats. He himself offers the great example of that most blessed truth, that our best offering is a broken and contrite heart; contrite, that is, worn, rubbed down as it were, by the misery it has undergone. And lastly he turns to his prayer for his Jerusalem which he was building; meaning, perhaps, to beg that his crime might not bring evil on it; a prayer which Christians may apply to their Jerusalem, the Church of the Living God, joining with David in the promise of grateful thank-offerings at His altar. Most precious, most sweet of Psalms. On how many death-beds has it been the last utterance?*—how many sinners has it brought home? Thanks unto the God who thus brought good out of evil.

LESSON CIV.

THE DEATH OF DAVID'S CHILD.

B.C. 1033.-2 SAM. xii. 15-25.

And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very sick.

David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.

And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.

And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?

But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead.

Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and

* Queen Margaret of Scotland; Henry V.

changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.

Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread.

And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live?

But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: * and the LORD loved him.

And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.

COMMENT.-The sentence of punishment in this world which Nathan had spoken began to be fulfilled by the sickness of the young child of Bathsheba. David, who loved his children most tenderly, grieved exceedingly, and hoped, by his own prayer and humiliation, to win the life of the innocent child from the God who had hitherto "granted him his heart's desire, and fulfilled all his mind.” But, alas! a change had come since those happy days. God is merciful, but He is just; and though David was pardoned, and still beloved and loving, yet chastening was good for him. Suffer he must for his sin, for "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Heb. xii. 6). Without the continual suffering under the sentence, who knows whether David might not have fallen back into the sins he had repented of, or been led away by the temptations of a conquering Eastern monarch? So, in spite of his tears, the child was taken, and the first stroke had fallen. But his counsellors were amazed that, after the child's death, he ceased his mourning and humiliation. They did not understand that though, while life lasted, he tried whether prayer and fasting would avail to win mercy for the little one, yet since its death was God's will, he was resolved to submit cheerfully, and not by word or sign to show any complaint of what he knew came from a Father's hand, and was well deserved. He did not say, like Cain, "My punishment is greater than I can bear," but he fixed his thought on that time

VOL. II.

* Peaceful.

U

+ Beloved of the Lord.

when he should meet his child once more; and when we remember

that it was David who sang (Psalm xvi.)—

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth:

My flesh also shall rest in hope.

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;

Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life:

In thy presence is fulness of joy ;

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore

we cannot doubt that he looked to the home of the blessed beyond the grave. These are the clearest expressions of such hope in the carlier part of the Bible, and the Psalm, as St. Peter points out, is plain prophecy of our Lord's resurrection (Acts ii. 31).

An earthly consolation was given to David in the birth of another child of Bathsheba, a child who was marked out from the first as the peaceful son who should build the Temple and continue the promise. David had named him Solomon, "the peaceful;" and Jedidiah, or "beloved of the Lord," was a surname given him by God Himself, who sent by the hand of Nathan, and thus marked him out.

LESSON CV.

EXPLOITS OF DAVID'S MIGHTY MEN.

B.C. 1033.—2 Sam. xii. 26—31 ; xxi. 15–17; 1 Chron. xx. 4—8.

And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city.

And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters.

Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it.

And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.

And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put thenı under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln : and thus did he unto all the cities of

the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.

And Ishbi-benob,* which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.

And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; at which time Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Sippai, that was of the children of the giant : and they were subdued.

And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver's beam.

And yet again there was war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot and he also was the son of the giant.

But when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, slew him.

These were born unto the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

COMMENT. Whether what we are told in this lesson happened in the interval before Solomon's birth is not certain, since it is not unlikely that the sacred writer carried on the history to the token of David's forgiveness before going back to finish the account of the Ammonite war. There is also reason to think, from expressions in the 32nd and other Psalms, which belong to his time of penitence, that David's grief had resulted in a heavy sickness, which apparently weakened and made an old man of him; and at any rate Joab conducted the siege of Rabbah-Ammon by himself. It lasted a long time, but at length he took the lower city, or, as it was called, the City of Waters, from the fine stream Maiel, or Upper Jabbok, which surrounded it. Travellers who find their way to the ruins of Ammon, as it is now called, understand the force of Joab's term when they come upon the bright waters full of fish. The citadel still remained, and Joab, who always had a great care for the honour of his king, sent to summon him to the final assault, lest he should miss the glory of being the conqueror. The fortress was * Inhabitant of the high place.